Dates and Scheduling

Mmmm... Root Beer...

I just got back from the travel agency where Peter and I booked our tickets to Uruguay!!!! Oh, Shit, that reminds me--I have to go to the bank. I will continue this post in a moment.

15 minutes later...

Well, that was rather unnecessary. I needed to make sure that I didn't have more than $100 dollars charged to my Visa before the charge for the ticket went through (it was a card imprint, so it wasn't instantaneous), and when I got to the bank, I discovered I had less than $30 charged to my Visa. This was good news, yes, but I had brought rather a lot of cash with me, just in case, and I now find myself with most of it still hanging around, despite putting a lot in my chequing account. See, when I was saving up money for this trip, I took it out of my chequing account so that I wouldn't accidentally spend any of it, but since I don't have a savings account, that meant that I just kept it at home in cash. So now I'm putting it all back in installments, because all at once wouldn't fit in a deposit envelope. But all of it will go bye-bye when I have to pay off my ticket. :-( Oh, well. I get paid in two days. Yay, income!!!

So, anyway, as I was saying, the trip is booked! We have cancellationg insurance, though, just in case something gets blown up or my grandmother dies or something equally bad happens. Yah, my grandmother is in the hospital and won't be coming out. My grandfather got sick of her attacking him repeatedly. I have no idea why she was doing that. But even her doctor was surprised by how much worse her Alzheimers has gotten since November. My aunt seems to think my grandmother will be dead within a month, and I'm not inclined to insist she's wrong.

But, anyway, we leave August 3rd. Let me put that in context for you. My sister's wedding is on July 29th. We get back in Edmonton July 31st. August 1st we get possesion of our new house. August 3rd, we leave for Uruguay. Yeesh. It shouldn't be too bad, though, so long as I get my packing done before I leave for Vancouver. Or Victoria or where ever the hell we're going. The flight is to Vancouver, but the wedding is just outside of Victoria. In any case, I'll be back August 24th after three weeks, and Peter will be back September 14th after six weeks. So, schedule-wise, it would be best for me if my grandmother died in early July. That way my parents will be back and I won't miss seeing people at the end of June. I know, I know, I'm horrible and there are people who would be disowned for saying and/or considering things like that, but oh, well. She's going soon, so I may as well figure out what parts of my life may be displaced so that I can take measures to compensate, if necessary.

But, anyway, about the end of June. Chineese food has been decided on. Peter's gonna do stuff out of Barbara Tropp's China Moon cookbook. If any of you ever had the pork buns we've made a couple of times, those are from the same book. The menu hasn't been solidified, but there will be four courses: 1) wanton soup (pork), 2) some sort of meat dish (either chicken or beef) with some kind of fried rice, 3) some other kind of meat dish, probably pork, with some kind of noodles, possibly cold Thai noodles, and 4) a dessert, in tarte form (possibly the ying-yang tarte on the cover of the book).

Now, what I need from y'all is info about when you'll be in town. This means Jo, Kaitlyn, Doug and Courtney especially. If anybody knows anything about John, that would be great, but I'm assuming he's not gonna be back by then. Oh, and what's up with Sean? The table seats 12, but we have extra collapsable chairs if necessary. (*ba-dum-crash*) The usual suspects are of course invited: Pri, Morgan, Angela, Dave, Sheryl, the out-of-towners I mentioned above... I may be forgetting some people. Dates are welcome, especially if they're named Iggy or Eric. Also, we're taking drink suggestions. I mentioned Caesar-sans, but Peter rightly pointed out that those are from the wrong culture. We're gonna have wine and/or beer pairings. Did I mention Peter bought Singha the other day? Anyway, speak up and be fed!

This is, of course, in honour of Jo's return home, so it will be sometime when she can make it, but we want to have it so that as many people as possible can be there.

ETA: Peter's been making fun of me, so I'd just like to publicly proclaim that I have learnt that it is wonton soup, not wanton soup. Also, I want more pork buns. Those things rocked.